School Act Opponents Consider Options

The Uri Party’s enforcement of the revised private school act has caused a stir.

The Korean Council for Private Middle and High School Foundations (KCPMHF) is planning to hold a national executive committee meeting today to discuss whether to close schools this week in response.

The Korean Federation of Private Educational Foundation (KFPEF) held an urgent executive meeting on December 10, when the private school act reform bill was passed, to reconfirm its policies that it would deliberately file an unconstitutionality lawsuit against the private school act and reject new students to close schools next year.

The KFPEF said, “We are planning to bring action against the government for the damage we have suffered and take the government to task for depriving school management rights through retroactive legislation.”

The KCPMHF, consisting of over 1,700 schools, will hold an emergency board meeting to determine its plan of action, including a temporary closure of schools one day this week and rejection of new students, to protest against the legislation.

Meanwhile, the Grand National Party (GNP) held a meeting for devising countermeasures yesterday, organized the tentatively-named “Private School Act Abolishment and Schoolchildren Protection Center,” and protested against the actions of the ruling party.

The GNP will file a constitutional petition against the private school act amendment that specified an open system for the board of directors on the grounds of unconstitutionality, and ask for a judgment on the authority disputes from the constitutional court, criticizing the one-sided administration by National Assembly speaker Kim Won-ki.

However, Uri Party Chairman Chung Sye-kyun said in an informal conversation with the press: “If a school closure deprives students of the right to attend school, it should be dealt with according to the law in order to keep nations from worrying about their children’s education.”

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com jnghn@donga.com